


The challenge

by adelaide_rain



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-30
Updated: 2011-11-30
Packaged: 2017-10-26 17:05:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/285771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adelaide_rain/pseuds/adelaide_rain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur and Eames have an unofficial competition to out-romance one another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The challenge

There are too many damned choices.

Emerald, violet and crimson: Arthur has heard of those colours even if they wouldn’t be his first choice. But mignonette and peach puff? Really?

Arthur considers himself an excellent shopper when it comes to clothes. He has style, he has taste; he knows a good fit and he knows the good brands, designer or otherwise.

The trouble is that he isn’t buying for himself: he’s buying for Eames. While Arthur wouldn’t go as far as to say that Eames has no taste - he’d be insulting himself there, after all - he would decisively say that their styles are very different.

Like now: in addition to these - not garish, exactly - colours, then there are the patterns. Eames loves patterns. For that matter, so does Arthur. Pinstripes make him weak at the knees when combined with a well-cut waistcoat. Even, dare he say, a little paisley when done delicately. Which is, of course, the problem. Eames is not at all subtle in his choice of clothing. He has - a very unique style.

Arthur takes the grey shirt with the aquamarine damask pattern from the rack for the fifth time and sighs. Eames will like it. Eames will look good in it: it’ll match his eyes and the cut will show off his shoulders and chest.

“Arthur, are you _still_ looking at that shirt?” Arthur looks up to see that Ariadne has returned; she got bored of him staring at the rack of shirts and went for a wander around the shop. Now she’s back, her hands on her hips and her lips twitching as she tries not to smile.

“When I’m buying a gift I always make sure that I buy something they’re going to like,” Arthur says, looking back at the shirt to inspect the quality of the stitching.

She sighs and comes closer to take a look at it. “What are you buying it for, anyway?”

“Just because,” Arthur says, deciding that yes, Eames will like this, and whatever bias Arthur has against it, he’ll just have to quash.

“Just because? You’re buying Eames a shirt you don’t like _just because_? I thought it must be your anniversary or something.”

“I don’t dislike it.”

“You’re a liar. You’re also a sap.” She laughs and covers her mouth with her hands. “My god, Arthur. You’re buying him a $700 shirt ‘just because’. You know, there was a time when I thought you were a cold, ass-kicking machine. I miss those days.”

“I miss those days too,” Arthur says, heading over to the cash register. “You were better behaved then.”

“You’re not a school teacher, Arthur,” she says, rolling her eyes and trailing after him. “Hurry it up. You have to get me that cheesecake you promised before you’re allowed to go home to your lover boy.”

Arthur ignores her as he hands over a credit card under the name of Joseph Hardy and scrawls an illegible signature.

The thing is, Arthur is a cold, ass-kicking machine when occasion calls for it. Much more often the occasion calls for him to be a considerate partner (and there are a handful of times he’s roleplayed a school teacher, when Eames asked very nicely, but there’s no way that Ariadne is ever going to find out about that). Arthur _likes_ getting gifts for Eames. Eames makes him things all the time, but since Arthur is not nearly as creative, bought gifts will have to suffice.

He buys Ariadne the cheesecake and promises that he will bake one for her next time she comes over for dinner. As Arthur drives her back to her apartment, she fills the car with quips about him being _in lurve_ and makes hand hearts at him - the whole thing seems to amuse her terribly.

When Arthur gets home, he is greeted by Eames, who has a huge bunch of flowers in his arms and is singing Arthur’s favourite song in a voice only a mother could love. Arthur shuts him up with a gentle kiss.

Behind closed doors Arthur may be occasionally sappy, but he’s not the only one. He has stiff competition from Eames, and Arthur has never been one to turn down a challenge.

This one, though, he may not mind losing.


End file.
